BREAKING THE MOULD

ISSUE 1:

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Reader,

Our first theme of the year, Breaking the Mould, is an idiom which acts as a fundamental comment on the human condition: our need to organise and order, to create designs which help us process the world, yet the inevitable restriction and stagnation that a structure can come with. We have found ourselves in a time of extreme environmental, political, and social crisis because the founding architecture of our society is made of the wrong materials. Our need to be innovative and urgently change is more pertinent than ever. 

A collection of numerous interpretations, Breaking the Mould is: our Politics section, which questions the framework we live in by evaluating structural racism and our own political fracture, the broken state of Britain; our Culture 

 section, exploring the colonial mould by looking at the physical erasure of ethnic minorities and physical objects; our Features section, commenting on unhealthy moulds giving harmful shape to individuals; our Style section, highlighting the danger of a single mould (“white and skinny”) and tokenistic model casting, which shows that “breaking the mould” can often be a trend for image rather than authenticity; and finally having a collaborative photoshoot with Chris Timmins to break the false lens through which trans and non-binary folk are seen; re-examining the mould of a photoshoot by having the models construct a concept which represents them. 

 

Moreover, GUM has broken its own mould with the addition of new roles, an Art and Photography section, a visuals team, Glasgow interviews and reviews, numerous fundraisers and workshops, a business rebrand and digital reboot. We have worked hard to put the “Glasgow” back into Glasgow University Magazine, making you aware of the local projects happening in our city through social media and having vibrant collaborations with the likes of Drawing Life Glasgow and Doyenne Skateboards.

The vibrant mould of our magazine is given shape by the hard work of our content team’s forward-thinking pitches and our contributors’ execution of those ideas, as well as the visual language sown by our visuals team and the hard work of our graphic designer. Beyond the page, credit must be paid to the unseen efforts of our business and digital media team. Our fundraisers and events have injected the magazine with new life and are building a community. Moreover, the continuous grind of social media to transmit our publication has given GUM presence and an identity. I hope you feel the essence of all these members; the ideas and energy of so many people condensed into one creation is truly beautiful. 

If there is anything to learn from this process, breaking a mould is collaborative. This magazine is an organised rebellion. We are part of, and therefore have the power to change the framework of this world. Our collective awareness and actions can materialise a better future.

 Break the mould,

Lynsay Holmes
(Editor-in-Chief)

Author